TV on a Rolling Cart

Trouble Afoot

From The Electric Company (2009) · 2009

Trouble Afoot
28 min2nd3rdReading & Writing (ELA)
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Summary

After Manny challenges Hector to a one-on-one game of basketball, he switches Hector's sneakers with a pair that destroys the coordination of the wearer. As Hector flails around the city, the others try to discover the password that can remove the sneakers, based on clues in Manny's badly rhymed video messages. Special Guest Star: Whoopi Goldberg Villain: Manny Words: Coordinated, challenge, agility, victory, function Like every Electric Company adventure, the story hangs on reading, decoding, and vocabulary under pressure.

Viewer safety

All ages
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Teaching resources

Discussion questions

Discussion

Every Electric Company episode builds its story around wordballs — words the team reads, decodes, and uses under pressure. Watch for the vocabulary the episode leans on and how the characters puzzle words out.

  1. Which words did the Electric Company have to read or decode to solve the problem?
  2. How did a character figure out a word they didn't know at first?
  3. Where could you use one of this episode's words this week?

Quick work-a-long

Vocabulary: decode, wordball, clue, solve.

Try it: Keep a wordball list while you watch — every word the show spotlights goes on the board, and each student picks one to use in a sentence afterward.